Category: Archive

So FM2006 arrived earlier in the week … and has been sitting on my desk all week. I am not even sure why I pretend to have time to game these days.

I would get to FM2006 this weekend, but the weekend has pretty much been Housecleaning 2005 Spectacular; actually Yard Work 2005 Spectacular. I thought I had a deal to sale my house without listing it (and incurring agent fees), but the buyer could not sale their house in a reasonable amount of time, so now we have to list the house on Monday. What a major pain in the ass.

It looks like our new house will be ready in a couple of weeks – keeping my fingers crossed. We are renovating my grandmother’s 100+ year-old house, and it has been an adventure. New plumbing, re-wiring the house, building a new kitchen, saving a garage apartment, and the list goes on and on. It is amazing how much time and effort this is taking. I was ignorant going into this – figured I could just hire a general contractor that specializes in renovating old homes; silly me. The house looks great, but as I said, it has been a pain getting to this point.

On a completely unrelated note, I have put in a decent amount of time with Madden this week and I have to say that Madden for the PSP does not suck as much as I have read. I will try to write more info later, but I am actually enjoying the game. I have not really played around with the franchise mode (because of all the reported bugs), but single player games have been fun. The ability to play a quarter – then sleep or save – and play some more later is a godsend. There are some load times (delays) between the play select screen and lining up for a play, but that is really my only complaint at this point.

I watched Star Wars III a couple of nights ago – this one is the best of the new bunch. It has everything you would want in a Star Wars move – great space battles, light saber duels, cool aliens, and awesome special effects, but man does the acting suck. Office Space was also re-released on DVD Tuesday, but I passed on it because there is no freaking commentary. Publishers are doing major $ grabs when they release second and third versions of a DVD with minimal extras/upgrades over previous editions.

I really hate yard work. I am not sure what sucks more – having to invest more time and effort into my current house, or the major landscaping effort that looms in front of me for my new house. As I have grown older, I actually find some yard work therapeutic, but mostly I hate wasting weekend time working in the yard.

I am not sure why, but I decided to purchase Nirvana’s “Nevermind” from iTunes. I have always been a casual fan – I like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” “In Bloom” and “Come As You Are” but that is really it. I am not sure why the rest of the album is so beloved. Luckily I had an iTunes gift card so I do not feel like I totally wasted my money. I guess I will really show my age (closing in fast on 35), but Madonna’s “Something to Remember” and “The Immaculate Collection” were much better purchases. Sue me.

I finally decided to get serious about my PSP collection and only keep the games that I am playing, or have time to play more than every now and again. Ridge Racer and Twisted Metal: Head On missed the cut and where promptly listed on eBay yesterday. Wipe Out: Pure may be next; it is a great racing game, but Colin McRae Rally may be the only racing game I need. I know they are completely different types of racing, but there is only so much free time in a day. If I can get some life out of Madden PSP’s franchise mode, then I may wish Madden 2006 for the PS2 a fond farewell.

All for now. Hopefully more to come on FM2006, and Madden PSP.

Still version 6.01, but now Build 70473. Don’t ask me why it couldn’t be 6.011 or something like that.

Eidos announced that Championship Manager 2006 exists and will include a new “Gameplan 3D match engine.” I still think it’s odd that there are Championship Manager fans who did not jump ship and join the Sports Interactive exodus to SEGA and the Football Manager series. SI Games created the Championship Manager that Eidos published, they left their old code with Eidos for them to do what they wanted with, and continued the Championship Manager series in exile – or better known as Football Manager. Some fans prefer CM 2005 over FM 2005. I have no opinion because with FM 2006 available, who needs another soccer text management sim?

I think I’d even drink a case of PBR before I’d try coffee beer.

Well, I must say that the entire CD WoW! purchase was pretty painless. At $39 and free shipping, other than the slight delay in it’s initial “dispatch”, I have no complaints. It arrived within the 10 day window as promised. I’m currently reading through the FM 2006 guide and the Civilization IV manual. I know that it’s probably quaint and old fashioned, but I actually do read the manuals before I play a game.

If you ever wondered who is online in World of Warcraft and what they look like, take a look at these photos. And be scared. Very scared.

Yet another icon from my gaming youth may go the way of the dodo. There are reports that EBGames.com will likely be merged into Gamestop.com under the Gamestop banner.

I purchased Q4 based on a work friend’s undying devotion to the series and promises that her husband would be hosting on their home game server. Nothing like wishing the person in the cube next to you a “good morning” along with a “I told you I hit what I aim at”, I thought. Turns out that they, like myself, were quite turned off by the finished product. I played the original Quake, but none of the followup releases until the current one. Also, I haven’t done many FPS’s these days, I’m more into tactical shooters. All I can say is that Q4 is certainly nothing new, has too many chippy levels in the single player game, and if I wanted to play a Raven-developed game, I’d be playing one of the Jedi Knight series. Multiplayer might be good fragging fun, but this one’s just not for me.

I’ll be exchanging today for Call of Duty 2. Give me a BAR over a nail gun any day, and I hear that COD2 has real smoke effects, including smoke grenades.

Georgia beat Florida in my game, that is strange enough, but not the actual bug I came across today. I have had little time to fire up the PS2 of late, so when the opportunity presented itself (kids at mom’s house, and wife taking a nap) I had to dig the game out. While running a hurry up offense late in the 2nd quarter, a CPU controlled CB lined up facing my team, but on my side of the ball, several yards behind the WR he should have been covering resulting in an offsides penalty. I guess the developers had to do something to ensure there would be some penalties called. Strange stuffs.

Hopefully Texas will make a comeback and take care of the Cowboys, and I can only assume that Vince will have another amazing game. As I sit here and write this entry (CG is still down due to bandwidth issues), Texas just pulled to within 9 (28-19) early in the 3rd quarter. Vince Young is incredible – how could anyone not put him at the front of the Heisman chase? It would be a travesty if Young does not receive the award (assuming he keeps on keeping on).

It looks like we busted our allotted bandwidth for October. I did not think we were getting that much traffic, but last month we almost exceeded our bandwidth, and now the site is down until tech-support decides to turn the governor off. I told Chris that a lot of folks must love him – something like that anyway.

I am going to be real disappointed if I find out that we are getting hit by spam bots instead of Chris’ fan club. Thanks for the support, I think.

Three things happened while I was in London that potentially spoiled me to the local Columbus, GA cuisine for many (many) weeks to come. First, I had the best Chinese food ever – today’s take out from one of Tonya’s favorite places paled in comparison. Second, pizza will never be the same thanks to the Dickens Inn (near the Tower). Finally the beer – oh, the wonderfully delicious beer; the sheer variety of beer on tap in London is amazing.

Every once in a while I like diving into a cheap beer or two just to see what is what. I mean, I have kids to feed and all, so I have to be a cheap ass from time to time. To drown away my sorrows from today’s UGA loss, I picked up a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. [No I did not really drown away my sorrows, but it sounds like a good line.]

Typical American light lager, best served cold. Honestly not too bad, but certainly not that wonderful. Did you expect more for about $0.60 a pop top? Not much flavor to be had, but I do like this better than my other two cheap beer mainstays – SouthPaw Light and Natty Light (beer flavored water to coin a phrase of a co-worker). OK, PBR is certainly not in the same league with Amstel (the full-body version, not the light stuff) or Stella Artois, but PBR is refreshingly cheap.

To each their own, I suppose.

Going into the season I had low expectations, but it is funny how quickly hope changes after Georgia put together a nice string of victories. Then DJ goes done, and today the dreaded Gators managed to take care of business 14-10 in Jacksonville, FL.

I guess I will look at the box score tomorrow morning and play the “what if” game. What if, DJ was not hurt? What if the defense was health? What if we made one of the two missed field goals – and what if the 52-yarder off the right goal post was six more inches to the left? What if Georgia’s receivers did not drop so many freaking passes (I counted at least 3 drops, including a ridiculously easy one on the opening drive).

Hats off to Florida; they did what they do best – beat Georgia. Damn this one sucks.

The annual Strat-O-Matic sale has begun. From their web site:

“Our annual $10, 3 for $25 sale is here and will run through 12/31/05. For more info on which card sets are on sale please go to the Products section.”

My Civilization IV installation was smooth as silk. No problems to report. I am running the game at 1600×1200 and my 6800GT isn’t missing a beat. People are reporting all sorts of problems installing and running Civ IV. I am not one of them.

However, the install and play CDs are mislabeled.